The vegetarian movement in England, 1847-1981: a study in the structure of its ideology

Twigg, Julia (1981) The vegetarian movement in England, 1847-1981: a study in the structure of its ideology. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

The historical material is divided into four periods, concentrating on the four major phases of modern vegetarianism (the l840s and early '50s; the 1880s and '90s; the late 1920s and the late 1960s and '70s), Particular emphasis is placed on the parallel beliefs and attitudes with which vegetarianism is associated. This has involved tracing historical connections within the fields of, among others, medicine, religion, political thought and aspects of life styles, as well as in attitudes to animals and the Animal, to Nature and the natural, both with a view to making sense of these interconnections, and attempting to place vegetarianism within the wider cultural context, particularly as part of the continuing upsurge in western culture of a Romanticist set of ideas. The study has aimed to use certain concepts derived from anthropology, but in an advanced cultural setting. Vegetanianism has been chosen as providing an articulate body of material relating to food and food habits. The study has employed a modified structuralist analysis in terms of vegetarian food categories (for example, cold/hot, raw/cooked, natural/artificial) and the elaboration of these within the ideology 3 (pure/impure, life/death, non-time/time). Their meaning is examined also in the wider context of the structured relationship of food categories in dominant meat-eating culture, Particularly the role of meat and blood, The main purpose of the study, however, for which the examination of the wider social and historical context has been emphasised, has been to relate this analysis to the broader field of social relations that give it meaning.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 1981 Julia Twigg
Library of Congress subject classification:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Supervisor:	Martin, David
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4725

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